2007-07-29

Today we blessed the Large S in sacrament meeting and it reminded me of one of the most beautiful descriptions of what it means to be Mormon. I thought today I would simply pass it along. Margaret Young is a highly regarded LDS writer and after the PBS special, people were interested, so she wrote.

And people were interested! I've been surprised how many people watch PBS.

Anyway, here is her reply. I thought it really nailed the LDS experience in a lovely way.

2007-07-25

Cicada was the first blogger I had never met (but who had boucoup online social capital) to laugh at my jokes and link to me. Ergo, I owe her my fealty. Don't tell her though because her needs are totally out of my league. Hoo!

I don't know if I should say anything at all about editorgirl because I like her too much to say only a little and I don't want to obligate her to read a lot and, well, she should really be working on her thesis.

who is so smart I get scared sometimes. Thank goodness he married someone not scary in Brozy. Not that she's not smart, but she's not scary. These things are not, contrary to popular believe, mutually inclusive.

Daltongirl is who I want to be when my kids are hers ages. Only she's a girl.

Or actually, you know what I really want? Her husband's hair. It's what I've wanted since high school, but mine is stubbornly colored. It probably won't change until Lady Steed's freaked out about me getting old and she'll make me dye it.

It's startling to me, given how long we've known each other and through so many different venues of knowing, that I have actually only met Edgy once--at a Fobbian Blog Party. Unbelievable! He outreads me, is a renowned editor, and knows the alphabet.

2007-07-24

I read a great book about Hollywood and the movies a couple years ago and Chinatown was a movie the author dwelt on quite a bit. So I'm totally excited to someday maybe getting around to watching it. Totally.

No one is going to deny this movie is entertaining, but I don't understand the love people throw at it. What's the deal? It's a couple guys in drag! And Marilyn in a really hot dress! This is Great Art?!?!?!

Claude Rains rocked Casablanca and he rocks this movie as well. Jimmy Stewart rocked Vertigo and It's a Wonderful Life and he rocks this movie as well. This is the American Dream--not in a monetary sense, but in a Raise Hell in the Bureaucracy sense, which is every bit as powerful a dream.

This movie deserves all the love it gets and more. If you haven't seen that girl sneak into Bette Davis's life, you cannot imagine how awful life can get. This is one of the few movies I am absolutely opposed to remaking, no matter that the story is excellent and a new generation should see it. You cannot remake perfection. Not even for boucoup box office.

You know this movie, right? Well, you should--it does mention Tehachapi after all. If you ever get tired of Barbara Stanwyck being nice (if such a thing is possible), check out her evil side. And if you only know Fred MacMurray from his flying-cars days, check out his noir side. This is dark and dirty and the sort of evil it's nice to come home to.

You're about to read me make a point I'll be making again on this list, which is this: This movie does not belong on this list and was not put here because of its own merits. This movie appears on this list where it does as a representation of the entire art of animation. And that is offensive. As if animation does not deserve to compete fairly with these other films instead of being corralled up, the represented by a single film! It's ridiculous!

Anyway, Snow White isn't even that great. It's just the first that ever there was and it was a huge blockbuster in its day. Arguably more tickets sold to see Snow White on its initial run than any other movie ever (possibly excepting Birth Of A Nation (off the new list--no doubt due to its blatant racism) and Gone with the Wind). So yes: it's a wildly important flick.

I'm just not that into POW movies. So even though Alec Guinness is in this movie, I probably will never see it. I just can't imagine he'll be all that hilarious in a POW movie. Aren't they usually downers?

I saw this movie in high school and the only part I really liked was when Keenan Wynn shot the Coke machine (serves 'em right). I didn't find Peter Sellers funny in any of his roles. Knew too much about the plot coming into it. Was a teenager.

People I respect say I should try it again now. That I'll probably like it.

2007-07-22

We have not settled on a blogonym for Child the Second, but I am going to try a naming system on for size as part of this post. This naming system requires a renymming of Child the First, so be prepared.

-----

We've had a hard time with this because we are desperate to keep the name from indicating he has a subservient or secondary status to Biggo. So names like Squeaky and Sidekick, which had a lot going for them, were rejected. (Although if you heard this kid nurse...you might insist on calling him Squeaky anyway.)

I'm reading a book now all about preventing sibling rivalry and this not-comparing issue is a big one with them. So we didn't want to peg the new guy with a name that would always make him seem like a baby. Because the way Biggo's blogonym has stuck to him, well, who wants to be Nursing Squeakers at fifteen?

So far Biggo has been very loving and 42-month-old responsible towards his little brother Largess, and I hope that will prove a lasting trend. they'll need a true ally to deal with their wacko father after all. Biggo is already embarrassed of me, telling me to stop singing already, et cetera.

Family is a beautiful thing--the best. I'm glad my sons have each other. I hope they are always friends. All the way to eternity.

2007-07-20

The AFI has released a new Best 100 list (in case you hadn't heard). Once upon a time, Lady Steed and I used the last list as a source of evening planning. I'm going to be examining over a series of five posts how our efforts to be filminstas has been going by applying our filmic experiences to the new list:

1. "Citizen Kane," 1941.

We watched this a few years back and were underwhelmed. But we feel bad, oh gods of film, so we picked up this schmancy restored two-disc version which has since been sitting unopened on our dresser ever since. But we're going to open it soon. And watch it. And love it. We promise.

2. "The Godfather," 1972.

I picked up the entire trilogy for $5.87 back in oh-four (several copies, actually, but I sold the others for about $30 a pop--which is how much they cost new now. And, um, yeah. Haven't watched any of them yet. Heh. Heh heh.

But hey! We did watch the $1 copy of FFC's Dementia 13 we picked up at Target!

3. "Casablanca," 1942.

So I borrowed this movie from work. The first time we watched it, it was like dejavu because I knew every single line from this movie I had never seen.

I did not know if I liked it or not.

I watched it 1.5x more that weekend.

We've since bought our own copy and it's one of my favorite movies. If you have never seen it yet, see it now.

4. "Raging Bull," 1980.

Scorsese, right? Boxing, right? Maybe someday.

5. "Singin' in the Rain," 1952.

It's a sad truth that we only have this movie on VHS because this movie is awesome. Really. And as I get older, the two scenes I used to fast-foward through only get better.

6. "Gone With the Wind," 1939.

You know, I'm not sure if I've ever seen this? I sort of have a policy against seeing three-hour films unless I really really want to see them.

7. "Lawrence of Arabia," 1962.

Like this one. I really really want to see this one. But on the big screen. Or HD.

8. "Schindler's List," 1993.

I'm ashamed.

9. "Vertigo," 1958.

Good that this film moved so far up the list. Bad that it's still not number one. Worse that I missed a chance to see this on the big screen earlier this year.

I want to replace our copy with a sweet Criterion Edition, but there isn't one yet.

10. "The Wizard of Oz," 1939.

Okay. If you can't say anything nice....

I rewatched this movie (not my choice) earlier this year and it was actually pretty compelling. Stupid in different ways from the stupid book it was based on and probably more compelling. Though I still despise the ending.

2007-07-18

Where suspicion fills the air and holds scholars in line for fear of their jobs, there can be no exercise of the free intellect. . . . A problem can no longer be pursued with impunity to its edges. Fear stalks the classroom. The teacher is no longer a stimulant to adventurousthinking; she becomes instead a pipe line for safe and sound information. A deadening dogma takes the place of free inquiry. Instruction tends to become sterile; pursuit of knowledge is discouraged; discussion often leaves off where it should begin.

2007-07-17

Just a block away in the next county, the garbage collectors are on strike. So the city of Albany--a high-end place to live, with its excellent schools and manicured lawns--has not had its trash collected for a couple weeks. And these beautiful neighborhoods, which the Big O and I just walked through on our way to the park, stink like a well managed dump.

2007-07-16

Did you happen to catch Sesame Street this morning? Maria and Luis were trying to celebrate their anniversary in the park with a quiet picnic, but they kept getting interrupted by people singing about laughing or staging impromptu game shows or hulaing. Yeah.

Saturday was our seventh anniversary and Lady Steed spent it sick in bed. Not that it mattered--it started with my parents in town and included the Big O and I gone much of the day on vital errands. Et cetera.

By the time Lady Steed was finally cognizant and not fully baby-involved, it was time to go to bed to collapse in sleep. We still haven't, you know, exchanged gifts or sly glances or anything of the sort.

Last year's anniversary?

We moved.

When we first were married, I could foresee no excuse not to make each anniversary an occasion. So far, not so good.

But inconveniences and practicalities obscure the greater point: that we are married and love each other and are going strong.

Lady Steed is woven into my person like gold on a blue ribbon and I need her.Lady Steed defines my being like sun falling on newly sprouted clover and I love her.

It sucks--it really really sucks--that we couldn't go to, oh, Prague on Saturday, but we are together and one and we love each other.

I love you, love.

And with luck I'll be home by seven.

Maybe we can, I don't know, sit on the porch and share a peach or something. That would be nice.

2007-07-15

It seems to be a requirement that to be Mormon, one must be gregarious. It's not really, but us introverts can sometimes feel a little sinny, if you know what I mean. We're not doing the best job with Proclaiming the Gospel or Perfecting the Saints. So if we lack the necrophiliac tendency (that's a joke), what are we to do?

On one hand, we should try to be more outgoing anyway--it's good for us. And besides, since when is quietude an excuse to let people make their way merrily to hell (note: I'm having fun with hyperbole tonight)? Am I so jealous of my little dark corner that I sill not ever walk outside it?

I'm not sure where this is coming from. Yes, I do not often enough act in an outgoing manner. No, I do not stress about it that much. Nor enough, shall we say. But I probably have bigger things to worry about.

But then again, if Peter or Paul were shy and had let that overwhelm their call to preach what then?

Ah, but they were called.

I think with me, I'm a fine calling magnifier, but I'm not much of a callingless magnifier. (I apologizer for the Mormon-heavy vocab for those who are not.) I believe firmly in sinning on the side of doing to much, but I don't necessarily act according to that conviction.

That's a lot of what this svithe was about, and it made the point better, probably, and without all this whining for which I apologize.

So that's enough from me for tonight. Maybe I'll--I don't know--go blow a trumpet from the rooftop or something.

2007-07-13

Appropriate to finish this Friday the 13th...hadn't noticed that before.... ¶ So this book was pretty good. But unsatisfying. I had heard and read so much about how this book is gripping from the moment it begins and never let goes that I was in total suspense from page one--but only because of those reviews. Without them, I never would have guessed that this book was going to be so terrifying. And it was pretty terrifying. I can't look at our pumpkin vines growing across the driveway in innocence anymore.... The make me nervous. ¶ The book was good enough I still want to read his first, but it wasn't all I hoped it would be. Perhaps if I had read it quicker, the necessary ending would not have occurred to me ahead of time. But perhaps if the book hadn't been so willing to let me set it down and not pick it back up, I would have read it quicker. ¶ If you're looking for a scare and you're headed to Mexico, read it now. Otherwise...whatever.two weeksish

It occurred to me with the Big O's return from vacay today (as he immediately had me read a couple stories from this book) that a) this book qualifies for this list and b) I never included it when I first finished it. So I'm including it now and, even if it qualifies numerous times, I'm never including it again. Partially because I just don't like it that much and I regret talking Lady Steed into letting me buy it. ¶ See, heres the thing--these stories have terrible morals. Sure they're whimsical and fun, but their moral underpinning is just awful. Behold-----Cecily G. and the Nine Monkeys: If you want friends, you need to let people take advantage of you; and no matter how humiliating it may seem, you must like it too. Elizabite: Adventures of a Carnivorous Plant: Violence is hilarious. Pretzel: All he has to do is find the right stunt, and the studly guy will always get the girl. Katy No-Pocket: It's important to have the best stuff so you can be better than everyone else. Spotty: Racism's not bad, but it is kind of a bother. Whiteblack the Penguin Sees the World: Stealing will impress your friends.a couple weeks perhaps

Far be it from me to be disagreeable, but I, unlike the rest of the world (eg, notably, Edgy and 'sposa), really liked this book. Yes: nothing happens. Yes: the writing is like a goofy experiment. Yes: the method for assigning the appropriate title was scattershot. No: it's not perfect. But yes, I liked it. ¶ No one in their right mind would want to be a teenager again, but it did have some halcyon elements that finally dissipated with adulthood. This book has preserved them--bottled them--for your consumption. ¶ But seriously: check it out from the library--you don't need to buy it. ¶ Thanks to Lady Steed for making me read a book Edgy had made me talk bad about all this time.two possibly three weeks